The Lady and the Beast - Chapter 3

Prince Theodore did not expect Martina to come back alive. On the contrary, he intended to close this incident as the last fit of the witch’s madness and discard her as a loss. Therefore, instead of entering his army into the banquet hall, Prince Theodore held the doors tightly closed. Trapping the rats inside and killing them one by one would do the trick. However, no matter how long he waited, no one was coming out alive.

“…It’s so quiet…” muttered Theodore.

Feeling something was odd, and just as he was to order to open them, the golden doors broke open with a terrific crash. While gripping their weapons nervously, the soldiers were astonished at the sight unveiling to their eyes.

Martina came out, covered by blood from head to toe. The fancy white clothes given to her by the King himself were now soaked in red.

Even the soldiers who were used to slaughtering gasped in shock at the banquet hall’s horrible scene. Martina threw the King in front of a frozen Theodore. The King’s crotch area was damped with what seemed to be his pee.

“I was wondering how much different Blanche’s bloodline is to the Leta’s, but I see that our urine is yellow. I bet our blood color shouldn’t be that different.” sneered Martina in a cold voice.

Sensing his end was coming, the King lost consciousness, unable to muster the courage to run away.

Martina stuck the sword that had cut Owen’s head in the ground and kneeled in front of Theodore: “My King. Please grant me this head”.

Theodore was abruptly made aware that the King’s title was now his. He answered:

“I consent.”

However, Martina did not kill her enemy in one slash. That man who was once a king and now nothing more than a commoner, she woke him up by cutting his ankles. Her treatment of her enemy was so indescribably cruel; it instilled terror among the people present at the scene. While throwing up, the soldiers could not take their eyes, mesmerized by her skills. It was as if she was performing some ritual.

After his half-brother Waldo gave up his last breath, the new King asked Martina:

“Your credit is great in this victory. What do you want?”

As if about to let out a painful cry, Martina answered:

“Please allow me to cut the tongues of the men responsible for my tribe.”

His mind was in such disarray he could not refuse.

A new phase came to the kingdom. The old father, who, manipulated by one of his son’s words, had abandoned the second, got confined in a separate palace, and soon killed amid widespread indifference.

The first thing Prince Theodore did after ascending to the throne was to winnow out the truth regarding the evidence fabricated to kill him. The dead Waldo became known as the immoral man who had harmed his brother, completely blinded by power. The new King won his people’s hearts for showing forgiveness for his brother’s sins.

In the process, the Leta tribe gained sympathy as victims of the previous King’s actions, bringing changes to their social position. Though it was truly unpleasant for Theodore, Martina, the only surviving successor of the Leta tribe, had a status equal to the protector of the royal family.

The Red Reaper, The Crimson Blade.

Such was Martina’s nicknames. She was honored by the King with a marquess rank and the “Leta” as her family name. She also took her mother’s name “Owen” as her middle name.

Martina Owen de Leta, whom everybody praised the combat skills. Without regret, the King fed his brother’s army -that very one who had put him into danger- to the Red Reaper. For the sake of her master, who had helped her revenge, Martina killed them all. But after the deal was done and her revenge fulfilled, problems soon arose.

The Leta name was no longer synonymous with wandering dogs.

The fame of the Red Reaper had spread all over the country. To the point that the Blanche kingdom was now known as The Red Country. The Leta name had cast a shadow over the King. After declining the wealth offered to her, Martina returned to the Areta highlands. But the King did not trust her.